Yearning is so back: How 'Rivals' and 'Off Campus' made subtlety the sexiest thing on TV

A subtle lip bite and longing stare, the gentle brush of finger tips, and the lingering glance as she walks away. Over the last few days, social media has been awash with tantalising clips like this: of our fave TV characters yearning, longing, and pining for one another, as Disney+’s Rivals returned for its second season and hockey romance Off Campus arrived on Prime Video.

Although there were a lot of thirsty fan edits featuring the shows’ heartthrob stars in little to no clothing, the resounding feeling among fans wasn’t one of appreciation for overt and explicitly sexual scenes (though there are plenty to enjoy) — rather, it was the subtle-yet-overwhelming feeling of want and desire that got the internet hot under the collar.

Rivals — a show based on Jilly Cooper’s 1980s bonkbuster of the same name, set amongst the wealthy elite of the Cotswolds — has long been synonymous with sex, and the new season, which dropped on Friday, didn’t disappoint. In one particularly heated episode, there was an actual montage of Rupert Campbell Black (Alex Hassell) and Cameron Cook (Nafessa Williams) having sex in every room of his house, only stopping when the former’s ex-wife Helen (Hayley Atwell) reminded them that the mirror they’re pressed up against is an antique.

And last Wednesday, Prime Video dropped the much-anticipated adaptation of Elle Kennedy’s hockey romance books Off Campus, introducing millions of viewers around the world to the relationship between Hannah Wells (Ella Bright) and Garrett Graham (Belmont Cameli), (Think of it as a straight version of Heated Rivalry.) The show has given Rivals a run for it’s money, with each episode coming for its rivals’ (geddit?) sex scene wig. From full-frontal in the shower to party one night stands, sex is everywhere.

And, yes, we’re talking full-frontal nudity: over the last few nights, we’ve seen more dicks and boobs than any doctor sees in a month. Yet, this isn’t what’s drawing people in. Whether it be the wistful way Rupert watches Taggie while at a dinner with his children, the way Freddie and Lizzie link fingers away from the prying eyes of the unsuspecting polo crowd, or the lingering look Garrett gives Hannah while she performs karaoke, audiences are gobbling up every single interaction that gives even so much as a jolt of real romance and hardcore L-O-V-E.

After a dry spell that saw sex all but disappear from our screens, in recent years, films and TV shows have been re-embracing steamy NSFW scenes. Think: Benedict and Sophie’s X-rated bath time scene in the most recent series of Bridgerton, or Margo and Sophie’s long-awaited sexual release in episode four of Hunting Wives, and, of course, the whole of Heated Rivalry.

And yet, although there’s buzz around all these hot sex scenes, what’s becoming more tantalising for many viewers is softer, more slow burn interactions that suggest depth of feeling, rather than explicit nudity or objective attractiveness. Case in point: far more people are lusting over Danny Dyer’s romantic scenes with Katherine Parkinson in Rivals — in which sharing a potato waffle is the hottest it gets — than they are over Alex Hassell’s dick on screen (no shade to Mr Hassell’s dick, of course). In short, we’re all horny for eroticism, sexual tension, and that butterfly feeling you get when you and your crush are still in the shy flirting stage.This is a mirror for how we’re feeling in our own lives, too. Despite accusations of Gen Z being a sexless generation, hook-up culture is rife today. It’s easy to find your next one-night stand via the apps, but romance is much harder to come by. Talk to any single person and they will tell you the dating scene is rough right now: it’s defined by dead-end chats, fleeting connections, and an underlying sense of apathy. Nobody’s getting wooed anymore; no one’s rushing to help you cater a dinner party for your father’s enemy, bringing over a new casserole dish because you put too much salt in the original one (honestly, where can we get a Rupert Campbell-Black IRL?) And so, if you can’t seem to experience romance in your own life, where else can you find it but in the art you consume?

Tinder stats shared previously with Cosmopolitan UK found that 71% of UK singles aged 18 to 25 want love that feels as intense as it does in films or books, which is why the swoon-worthy romance depicted in shows like Rivals and Off Campus have set audiences alight.

The intimate scenes in these two shows are depicted via a female lens, rather than catering to the male gaze. In Rivals and Off Campus, it’s clear that sex and romance scenes have been written with women’s pleasure in mind. In the former, for example, we see Lizzie and Freddie make love in the forest in the final episode of season one; there, Freddie goes down on Lizzie after licking champagne off her breasts — a rare and welcome portrayal of heterosexual sex that isn’t just about penetration.

There’s more subtle examples, too. In Off Campus, every time Hannah and Garrett put their hands on each other during their first kiss, the camera lingers slowly, exaggerating each touch. Speaking to Cosmopolitan UK recently, Jordan Dixon, a London-based psychosexual psychotherapist, explained that these moments are so appealing because “the friction around desire, rather than instant access to it, heightens erotic intensity”. Our urge for this friction is likely bolstered by our fatigue with the unambiguity of mainstream online porn — something women in particular are feeling, as evidenced by the recent boom in less visually explicit forms of erotica, like romance novels, erotic fiction, and audio porn.

But no scene has perhaps shocked audiences (for all the right reasons) more than episode four of Off Campus. Following Hannah’s admission to Garrett she wants to experience an orgasm with man — something she hasn’t been able to do following a sexual assault — Garrett takes it upon himself to discover how he can best help her achieve this. He approaches his best friend Dean, and the pair talk openly about giving women orgasms. The most crucial part of this conversation is when Dean places emphasis on a woman consenting, and how she must feel safe in order to trust him and truly let go.

This shouldn’t be groundbreaking, and yet the scene was a refreshingly honest conversation that feels like it’s been missing from our TV screens (and, sadly, our lives) for a long time. It wasn’t about the techniques they were going to use, or the right time to do it, it was about placing emphasis on women’s pleasure, safety, and trust — which is just about the sexiest thing you can see on TV.